Nemesis (20 page)

“Wish we could do that right now,” said Kay. “How do we get out of here?”

“Now the others are occupied, I think we can safely cross the plains this way. There’s a path back to the forest east-way… nobody ever comes here, but it goes without saying that humans are banned.”

“Figures,” said Kay.

“You really can’t turn it off?” I asked, as Markos moved out of the cave, glancing up at the forest bordering the cliff top.

“Never mind that. We need to move first. What even is this place?”

“A quarry of sorts, but we don’t use it,” said Markos. “This is a blasted nuisance. If any of my family knew I’d brought humans here… but it can’t be helped.”

He led the way over the rocky ground. Without the canopy above, I felt exposed, and not just because the invisibility had worn off. I concentrated on not tripping over the cracks in the paving-stone-sized rocks, stopping to squint when I saw something glittering in a gap between two smooth, bronze-coloured stones. Ahead, Markos didn’t look back, but I heard a sharp intake of breath from beside me.

“That’s… wait.” Kay paused. “I know what that is.” He went very silent.

Markos muttered something in Aglaian. “By the gods, human, if you mention this to
anyone,
I’ll kill you myself.”

I stopped, staring at him. His expression was stony. He couldn’t possibly be serious? Despite myself, I crouched, peering between the rocks. A black substance gleamed beneath.
No way.

“That’s intense,” said Kay, in a low, angry tone. “What the hell do you take me for?”

“Sorry, human,” said Markos, “but not even the mages here on Aglaia know anything of centaur territory. We can barely keep them from cutting down the whole forest. If they get the slightest idea of the resources hidden here, especially
that,
then we’d effectively undo a hundred years of peace.”

“I gathered as much,” said Kay. “I have no intention of mentioning any of this to the council, as it happens. Nor that I saw those Anthos centaurs exchanging something, and they mentioned your cousin’s name. Tryfon.”

“They
what?”

“I didn’t see what they were exchanging. I tried to listen in, but they were too close to us, I had to distract them.”

“Tryfon… and them? That explains a lot.” A shadow passed over the centaur’s face.

I edged away from him, and jumped as I backed into something solid.

“Sorry,” I said, turning around. “I didn’t see… obviously. You’re so quiet.”

“You’re standing on my foot,” said Kay.

“Ah–sorry!” I stumbled back. And now Markos was looking at me, eyes narrowed. “I won’t tell anyone about… whatever that is, either,” I said quickly. “Never. I’ve been keeping secrets most of my life, remember? I know things I’d never tell the council, even though I work for the Alliance now.”

“Sensible thinking, human,” said Markos. “I would never have allowed this if I’d ever thought there was the possibility… no matter. I’ll take you home.”

He’d believed me. And it was true. Some of the things the refugees had told me, I’d never repeat in a million years. Yet I was only now appreciating the value of information. I wasn’t sure what to think, really, only that I definitely hadn’t planned to get involved in Alliance politics.

But it might be too late already.

ADA

Our path took us over rocky ground. God only knew how Kay could possibly tell where he was going, being invisible. When I’d first used the Chameleon, it had taken a ton of practise not to accidentally hit obstacles or trip over my own shoes, and even visible, navigating the gaps between the rocks was precarious in places. At least we could actually see the sky here, the red sun a disc shape above the trees. It struck me then that I’d never been so far away from human habitation, unless you counted the Passages. I’d been in London my whole life. Even with the faint sounds of birds calling amongst the trees, the silence was as unnerving as the presence of a hostile species which would happily shoot us all dead. I kept glancing over my shoulder, hoping it was just paranoia that made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. That, or Kay being simultaneously present and absent.

“Are you even still there?” I asked Kay, as we reached the forest on the other side of the rocky plains. Markos had said the clearing was only a short path away. Although I couldn’t see it, some of the tension seeped out of me. We were in a safe zone now, Alliance ground.

The voice came from on my left. “Yes. Why?”

“I can’t hear you at all. I was starting to think you’d learned to teleport.”

“Yeah, right. If I could, I’d have used it to circumvent the public transport system.”

“Ha,” I said. “Good one. To be fair, you’d think the Passages would be used for that.”

“Strangely, no,” said Kay. “You’ve never been on the main Passage at peak time, have you? Worse than the bloody train.”

“Humans.” Markos shook his head.

“What? We can’t all get by on four hooves.”

Markos sighed. “Aren’t you going to try and undo that spell, human?”

“I
am
trying,” said Kay. “Maybe it’ll wear off when I get into the Passages, or back to Earth.”

“And if not?”

“Then I’ll have to fall back on a career as a spy.”

“Or a ninja.” I grinned despite the urgent silence wrapping around the forest. Joking kept the fear at bay. “You do move quiet enough.”

“Hmm. I’ll think about that one.”

We’d reached the clearing now.
Thank God
. But the tension didn’t relax out of my body even as we crossed over the threshold of the Passages.

“You should come back to Earth,” said Kay, as Markos paused, tapping a hoof on the ground.

“And leave the Anthos tribe to cause trouble?”

“You said they might be there to arrange your death.”

“They wouldn’t dare attack me. Eidora will see to it.”

“Right,” said Kay. “Where
is
Tryfon at the moment, anyway? We can’t report him if he’s vanished.”

“Yes, I’m aware of that slight hitch,” said Markos. “The good news is, I think it’ll make my sister come around and accept the leadership. She’ll believe I overheard him. She never liked him.”

“So, where are you going?” Kay asked. “I’d rather you didn’t go out into the forest and get yourself killed.”

A sudden
neigh
echoed through the trees. Markos’s expression sharpened. “Go. I’ll send word to you later, when I know what’s happening.”

Kay muttered a curse. “You’re joking.”

“Get out of here, humans!”

Good advice.
I hurried down the Passage, glancing back at the still-open door.

“Kay?” I said. “Dammit. We have to go. You can’t stay here.”

The door slid closed, seemingly of its own accord.

“Good,” I said. “Come on. We have to get back to Earth.”

“Yeah,” said Kay. “I just hope the damned idiot knows what he’s doing. We’re up to our necks in it now.”

I nodded. “We sure are. Whereabouts are you?”

“Here.” The voice came closer than I expected, and I shivered.

“Wow. This is… weird.”

“You don’t say.” Kay sounded annoyed now. “Bloody magic doesn’t come with a guidebook.”

The Passages here were quiet, because this area was rarely frequented by anyone from the Alliance. These worlds were recent additions, some still relatively unstable. I wanted to ask Kay about it, but the silence unnerved me. True, my own footsteps made no sound either, but that only added to the sense of being watched.

“I can’t tell if you’re ahead of me or behind me,” I said into the quiet. “Wait. I don’t know where we are.”

No reply.

“Kay?” I asked, heart sinking. He hadn’t gone out of range, had he? No way to tell.

“Uh… Kay? Seriously?”

Great.
I carried on walking, hoping I’d catch up sooner or later. Unless he’d gone back to help Markos.

“Dammit, Kay,” I said. “Tell me whether you’re there or not.”

Silence, apart from my own heartbeat.

“Brilliant.” Nothing to do but keep on walking and hope I didn’t run into any monsters.
They ought to issue maps.
The one thing my communicator didn’t have, even if it was hooked up to offworld GPS for the five neighbouring worlds. Which were literally miles away from here. It wasn’t like I could call home either, not until I got within at least a mile of Earth. God only knew where
that
was. All these Passages looked the same.

I tried to recall which way we’d come as I walked down the corridor. This one had a lot of doors on either side, marked only with numbers–seriously, did
every
Alliance member from
every
world have to learn where they led? Now I saw up close, though, there were symbols carved along the edges, invisible until they caught the light. I examined the nearest, curiosity getting the better of me.

Someone grabbed my arm suddenly, and I jumped a foot in the air. If there’d been a target to see, I’d have hit them.

“Jesus Christ!”

Kay appeared–literally appeared–right in front of me, grinning. “Hey, Ada.”

“You–you nearly gave me a heart attack.”

“I’m sure you’ll live.”

I glared. “That wasn’t funny.”

“It was. Admit it.”

“Well, I hope you’re entertained. If you do it again, I’ll break your face.” My heart was still beating like it was trying to escape.

Kay tilted his head to one side. “Not even one per cent entertaining?”

“Were you planning that the whole time? When did you figure out how to turn it off?”

“About a minute ago.”

“And your first thought was, I’m going to scare Ada half to death.”

“Who wouldn’t?”

I moved to hit him, and he vanished again.

“That’s not playing fair.” I groaned. “I want out of these Passages, Kay. You know I don’t know the way.”

“Oh, what a pity. I’ll send a patrol to come and get you.”

“You aren’t serious.” What the hell was he up to?

“Bye, Ada.”

“Kay, you total asshat–” I yelped as he grabbed me from behind. I twisted around, but he’d apparently moved again. “Should we really be messing around in here?”

“We’re on the first level.” He still hadn’t reappeared.

“So?” I spun on the spot, and I could hear him laughing at me. “Kay Walker, if you don’t appear
right now,
I’m going to break into your apartment and steal your limited edition
Lord of the Rings.
”

Kay appeared, a metre in front of me, wearing an expression of absolute incredulity. “You wouldn’t.”

“Don’t underestimate me. I know how to pick a lock.” I folded my arms. “Quit it. I want to get out of here.”

“Yeah, I got that.” The corner of his mouth quirked. “You remember where I live?”

Uh… no.
But he didn’t have to know. “Either lead us out of here or give me a map. Won’t Ms Weston think we got killed on Aglaia?”

“Don’t mention the dragon lady,” he said. “She’ll string us up from the ceiling, actually.” And he strode off. At least he wasn’t invisible this time.

“Great.” I hurried after him. “Question. How in the world are she and Amanda related? Amanda’s really nice, but she’s… uh. Not.”

“I have no idea,” said Kay. “She’ll want our report… dammit.
Don’t say a word about that quarry, okay? Even to her. She’d tell the council for sure. Of course it’s confidential, but if the Aglaians find out, they’d take it as a threat either way.”

And we were back on that topic again, the brief levity fading. We hurried through the Passages, though I had the sense Kay was holding back to make sure I didn’t fall behind. A sharp, unexpected pang shook me, reminding me of all the ways I’d screwed up lately. The whole thing with his ex–what did it matter, anyway? And as for Aric, it was like Kay had said, magic didn’t give you a choice. He might have killed people, but so had I. I’d be a hypocrite to judge him.

I
was
a freaking hypocrite. The things I’d accused him of, I’d done myself, and worse. Maybe after everything that had happened, I’d sabotaged a good thing out of some bizarre impulse to self-destruction, because deep down, I still didn’t believe it could be real. I’d kissed him, I’d actually felt something… and it scared me to death.

And had he even felt the same?

Before I could think of anything intelligent to say, we reached a corridor I recognised. Central’s door was opposite one of Valeria’s, the one Delta had dragged me through. Kay paused outside the door, testing it with his hands as if expecting to find it open.

“What’re you doing?”

“Keeping an eye out for ravegens,” he said. “I’d say it was those bastards who got into Aglaia, but they aren’t intelligent enough. It wouldn’t surprise me if this was all interrelated, but I don’t have enough information to figure it out yet.”